Browning is the process of partially cooking the surface of meat

Meat

Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...

 to help remove excessive fat

Fat

Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...

 and to give the meat a brown color crust and flavor through various browning reactions. Ground meat

Ground meat

Ground meat is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. It is called minced meat or more usually mince outside North America....

 will frequently be browned prior to adding other ingredients and completing the cooking process. The process is commonly used when adding ground meat to casserole

Casserole

A casserole, from the French for "saucepan", is a large, deep dish used both in the oven and as a serving vessel. The word casserole is also used for the food cooked and served in such a vessel, with the cookware itself called a casserole dish or casserole pan...

s or other prepackaged food products like Hamburger Helper

Hamburger Helper

Hamburger Helper is a line of packaged food products primarily consisting of boxed pasta bundled with a packet or packets of powdered sauce/seasonings. The contents of each box are combined with browned ground beef, water and milk to create a complete dish. The product line also features products...

, where the final cooking temperature will not be high enough to initiate the Maillard reaction

Maillard reaction

The Maillard reaction is a form of nonenzymatic browning similar to caramelization. It results from a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, usually requiring heat....

.

Techniques

It is typically done using a skillet or frying pan

Frying pan

A frying pan, frypan, or skillet is a flat-bottomed pan used for frying, searing, and browning foods. It is typically in diameter with relatively low sides that flare outwards, a long handle, and no lid. Larger pans may have a small grab handle opposite the main handle...

, which generally should be preheated to a medium high temperature to avoid sticking. In order to brown properly, the meat should first have surface moisture removed. This is usually achieved by patting the meat with a paper towel. The function of this is to remove water which creates steam instead of evenly browning the meat.

When browning ground beef

Ground beef

Beef mince, ground beef, hamburger meat , hamburg or minced meat is a minced meat food, made of beef finely chopped by a mincer. It is used in many recipes including hamburgers and cottage pie...

, the meat is stirred during cooking to break it up and to promote even browning. Onion

Onion

The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...

s and seasoning

Seasoning

Seasoning is the process of imparting flavor to, or improving the flavor of, food.- General meaning :Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves frequently referred to as "seasonings"...

s are sometimes added during the browning process. When the pink color has disappeared and the meat has reached the desired degree of brownness, the pan is removed from the heat and the excess fat is drained off.